Professional Activities

Organizer and Chair: Session on Adolescent Fertility, Meeting of the Population Association of America, Minneapolis, MN , April 2003

Chair: Session of the Changing Face of Adolescence, Meeting of the Americna Sociological Association, Anaheim, CA , August 2001

Member: American Sociological Association; Section memberships: population and children and youth , 1994

Member: Population Association of America , 1997

Membership Committee: Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Mentor: Undergraduate Research Scholars Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Member, Study Group Committee of Society for Research on Adolescence: decide which study groups to support for research pursuits

Member: Society for Research on Adolescence

Member: National Council on Family Relations

Research

“Adolescent Sexual Activity and Well-Being.” This project examines the effects of early sexual activity on a number of domains of adolescent life. A current study examines the role of friend and school norms in shaping the effects of sex on mental health, academic outcomes, and risk behaviors

“Families and Variation in Well-Being.” This project investigates the ways that differences within families manifest in child and parent well-being. One study finds the well-being of children from high conflict continuously married parent families is similar to those from single-parent families. Other studies examine the links between family dinners and well-being, parenting and subjective well-being, parental work adjustment after having a child, and children’s activities across the early life course

Murray Research Center's Adolescent and Youth Dissertation Award from Harvard University and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, 2002

Society for the Study of Social Problems, Graduate Student Paper Award. Recipient for "Adolescents' Transition to First Intercourse, Religiosity and Attitudes about Sex.", 2001

University of Wisconsin, Genevieve Gorst Herfuth Award for Outstanding Research in Social Studies. Recipient for "Adolescents' Transition to First Intercourse, Religiosity and Attitudes about Sex.", 2001